The county’s transportation agency is seeking the public’s input via an online survey on a project to ease congestion on the I-405 freeway.

The 405 carries more than 300,000 vehicles a day in some sections.

The Orange County Transportation Authority will soon start the environmental-impact phase of the 405 improvement project in which officials will consider four alternatives to improve traffic flow between the Los Angeles County line to Euclid Street in Fountain Valley. The project is expected to cost between $1.2 and $1.7 billion.

“Public input is a very important part of the environmental process,” said Joel Zlotnik, an OCTA spokesman. “Surveys like this are a very easy way for people to weigh in on the project.”

The options include:

•Adding one lane in each direction

•Add two lanes in each direction

•Allow solo motorists to travel in the existing carpool lane for a fee, add another carpool/toll lane, and a regular lane in each direction.

•Pull various elements from the other options using $500 million in Measure M funding.

The brief survey asks people to list what city they live, whether they are familiar with the upcoming project, what they think benefits or challenges would be associated with the freeway improvements and asks for contact information so residents can be updated on progress.

“I don’t know exactly how helpful (the survey) is going to be – those type of things tend to not reach older drivers and less affluent folks who don’t have access to computers,” said Diana Carey, of Westminster, who chairs a city committee on the 405 expansion project. “To me, that should be one of many sources of community outreach to gather information on the project.”

Residents in the West County city of Westminster have expressed concern on whether the OCTA will be able to widen the freeway without taking away land.

“Bottom line, they really do need to upgrade the freeway, we just want them to be up front (with their intentions),” Carey said.

Zlotnik said that the agency is committed to building generally within the existing right-of-way. “I think OCTA has been living by everything we said we would live by,” Zlotnik said.

In addition to the online survey, the OCTA will host a series of meetings over the next several weeks:

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